READING, Pa. — Chase Utley didn’t do much in his rehab assignment for the Reading Fightin Phils Wednesday night, but at least he looked good doing it.

Utley was 0 for 4 in the Fightin Phils’ 9-8 extra-inning win over the Portland Sea Dogs at FirstEnergy Stadium, but didn’t appear to nursing any lingering effects from the oblique injury that has kept him out of the Phillies lineup since May 20. Originally scheduled for seven innings, Utley decided to head back out on the field for the eighth to get another at-bat.

“It went well,” Utley said. “I played eight innings, got four at-bats, and played with no reservations, which is a good feeling to have.”

In his first at-bat, Utley put a charge into an offering from Sea Dogs starter Anthony Ranaudo, but the ball was caught by centerfielder Shannon Wilkerson. In his second trip to the plate, he hit a less-threatening flyout to shallow center. While his timing wasn’t in midseason form, Utley said he enjoyed the challenge of facing live pitching.

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“It was nice facing someone who wasn’t a BP pitcher,” he said of Ranaudo, who is considered one of the Boston Red Sox top pitching prospects. “Their guy tonight was pretty good. It’s good to see a pitcher who has some velocity and a breaking ball.”

In his third at-bat, he grounded into a fielder’s choice but avoided the double play by beating out the throw at first. He then nearly scored when Jim Murphy singled to left, but Reading manager Dusty Wathan put on the brakes as he rounded third.

“You always want to score,” Utley said, on being held up. “I couldn’t see what was going on behind me, so you rely on Dusty, the third base coach, to let you know what to do. I was OK with that.”

His eighth-inning at-bat ended in a routine flyout to right.

Defensively, Utley appeared to be moving fluidly. Three times hehandled throws from catcher Sebastian Valle attempting to catch Portland basestealers, successfully applying the tag on Matty Johnson in the first and Christian Vazquez in the fifth. In the sixth, a Valle throw went over his head into center, but Utley was able to leap and extend for the ball.

Utley said that he started talking batting practice about a week ago, and that he is currently swinging the bat at “100 percent.” He also said that, because of the unpredictable nature of oblique injuries, he’s added some new exercises to his pregame regimen.

“From talking to a bunch of guys, the oblique injury is kind of a weird thing, a freak thing,” he said. “No one can figure out exactly why it happens, but now I’m doing exercises to prevent that in the future.”

The five-time All-Star has been plagued by knee injuries in recent years, missing 45 games in 2011 to patellar tendinitis and 76 games in 2012 to Chondromalacia. While there were concerns that the latter condition could permanently derail his career, Utley appeared to bounce back strongly this season, playing in 44 of the team’s first 45 games.

Utley said that the timeframe for his return to Philadelphia is still up in the air, and didn’t rule out the possibility of playing more games in Reading.

“I’ll talk to Ruben (Amaro) and Charlie (Manuel) and put a gameplan together, but most importantly I’m feeling good out there and not holding back.”

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Former Trentonian sportswriter and utility man. New York Jets, Princeton basketball, Mercer/Bucks county high schools, Trenton Thunder. Tulane grad. Former Times-Picayune and NFL.com intern. Reach the author at nperuffo@trentonian.com
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